Smoke thru' vents into cabin after cleaning?

Cleaning the engine today to try to find source of an oil leak.

used engine degreasant - spray cleaner - around heat exchangers, oil cooler, oil tank etc. THought I'd rinsed off most of it.

But - Driving car back to parking space ( 5 mins ) so enough time to get exhaust hot .

Parked and saw thin clouds of smoke coming in through the ventilation slots - dash top and centre!!!!

The smoke smelt of the cleaning degreasant ( as opposed to buring oil, petrol etc. - so less alarmed.

Does this mean there's a hole into the heat exchangers somewhere?

[MotoSook]

Not a bad thing. Holes from atmosphere is OK, so long as they are not too big. Holes from the exhaust gas side is bad, unless you can breath and process CO!

The sheet metal that makes up the air chamber on the heat exchanger is rarely completely sealed/welded to the exhaust pipe. At least all the heat exchangers that I know of. Maybe the SSI's are better built, but the old stock ones fit the description.

Just take the car for a lone drive in the country and burn up all that water, grease and degreaser.

[JTO]

You know, I had the same experience with new SSIs. I believe that the diesel used in those emulsified degreasers is a pretty good penetrating oil. The seams in the SSIs allowed a bit inside the heat exchanger and ended up stinking up the car's cabin. So, I went from motor oil smell (got there from a valve adjustment) to the smell of hot diesel! It took a while to burn off too. Just turn the heat off and go for a long drive to burn that stuff off.

Troy